July 23, 2020 – Variety magazine reports that the next trio of Star Wars movies will be pushed back a year due to the ongoing havoc caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The Rise of Skywalker” was released Dec. 20, 2019 (USA). The next Star Wars movie is scheduled for Dec. 2023 – a four-year break likely welcomed by many.
The next Star Wars movie should debut December 22, 2023. Two follow-ups will hit theaters on alternating years or, more specifically, Dec. 19, 2025 and Dec. 17, 2027.
Disney/Lucasfilm have remained mum on even the tiniest detail of what to expect in the new batch of movies.
With cinemas worldwide either closed or sparsely attended because of the pandemic, Disney has been shuffling the release dates of almost all its movies. For example, James Cameron’s long-delayed sequels to Avatar will now roll out every other December beginning in 2022 (Avatar 2); then 2024 (Avatar 3); 2026 (Avatar 4); and 2028 (Avatar 5).
The original Avatar premiered in Dec. 2009 – nearly 11 years ago.
Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel (starring Ben Affleck and Matt Damon) has been bumped from its Christmas 2020 slot to a U.S. opening on Oct. 15, 2021.
For now, Marvel’s Black Widow is set for Nov. 6, 2020; Pixar’s animated Soul is Nov. 20, 2020; Ryan Reynold’s action-adventure Free Guy is Dec. 11, 2020; and Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story premieres Dec. 18, 2020. Needless to say, the release dates could be changed yet again if cinemas remain shuttered.
July 14, 2020 – Grant Imahara, 49, perhaps best known for his work on the American television series Mythbusters, has died of a brain aneurysm. He was an electrical engineer, roboticist and television host.
On Mythbusters, which ran on the Discovery Channel from 2003-2016, he designed and built numerous robots and operated various electronics used to test myths. He co-hosted the series with special effects experts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman.
For Star Wars fans, Imahara may be remembered for his work as a model maker and for updating the aging R2-D2 robots for the Prequel Trilogy (1999-2005).
After graduating from the University of Southern California with an electrical engineering degree, he joined Lucasfilm’s THX division and later worked in the studio’s visual effects division (VFX), Industrial Light and Magic. In addition to the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Imahara worked on other blockbusters including Jurassic Park, Terminator and The Matrix series of movies.
Grant Imahara built his own life-like Baby Yoda so “I could bring (it) to children’s hospitals for charity work, which is something I’ve been committed to doing.”
After seeing The Child/Baby Yoda on The Mandalorian, Grant Imahara built his own life-like animatronic Baby Yoda to cheer up sick kids. It took him three months to build. In a Facebook posting, he wrote: “It’s been three months of hard work and countless revisions. I did all the mechanical design, programming, and 3D printed the molds. He’s currently running a continuous sequence, but soon I’ll be able to trigger specific moods and reactions, as well as incorporate sound.”
The Asian-American roboticist and engineer sometimes operated an R2-D2 unit at live appearances, and he helped design and run the Energizer Bunny. He said the R2 droid was by far the easier to operate.
Imahara was engaged to his long-time girlfriend, costume designer Jennifer Newman.
July 13, 2020 – Lucasfilm announced today that its next animated series, Star Wars: The Bad Batch, will be streaming on Disney+ sometime in 2021.
Set in the aftermath of “The Clone Wars”, an elite squad of clone troopers who have taken on the nickname, the Bad Batch, “take on daring mercenary missions as they struggle to stay afloat and find new purpose”, according to a Lucasfilm release.
The highly-skilled members of Clone Force 99, who call themselves the Bad Batch, are the very best of the clone troopers. Members Hunter, Wrecker, Tech, and Crosshair were introduced in an episode of The Clone Wars. After rescuing the clone trooper Echo from Separatist captivity, they have welcomed the cybernetic soldier into their elite team.
Clone Force 99 a.k.a. the Bad Batch (Image Credit: Lucasfilm)
Star Wars: The Bad Batch is executive produced by Dave Filoni (The Mandalorian, Star Wars: The Clone Wars); Athena Portillo (Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels); Brad Rau (Star Wars Rebels, Star Wars Resistance) and Jennifer Corbett (Star Wars Resistance, NCIS) with Carrie Beck (The Mandalorian, Star Wars Rebels) as co-executive producer and Josh Rimes as producer (Star Wars Resistance).
June 30, 2020 – A rumor has been making the rounds over the last week that Disney is planning to erase Episodes VII, VIII and IX – TheForce Awakens, The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker – in order to “save” the Star Wars franchise.
The author of the rumor is YouTuber “Doomcock”, whose controversial video can be seen on his Overlord DVD channel:
With over 462,000 views, the hard-to-believe video has grown some legs of its own: Its wild speculation has been picked up and shared by some mainstream media.
Doomcock posits that the three sequel movies, directed by J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson, “will be removed from canon, isolated in their own alternate timeline and regarded as an Elseworlds-like instalment under the label of Star Wars Legends.”
He further states, without citing sources: “I have received confirmation from two additional sources claiming that this is spot on—that indeed Lucasfilm realizes they have a massive problem on their hands, that the Star Wars franchise is all but dead, and despite Kathleen Kennedy’s hatred of this idea, Lucasfilm is preparing to render the Sequel Trilogy null and void.”
The mechanism to reset the timeline comes courtesy of an episode of the animated Star Wars: Rebels. In Season 4, Episode 13 (“A World between Worlds”, Dec. 2017), Ezra wanders within a void between space and time. He watches through a portal as Ahsoka and Darth Vader duel and, just before her demise, Ezra pulls Ahsoka into the void. Emperor Palpatine projects Force energy through a portal in a failed attempt to slay Ezra and Ahsoka, who both escape through different portals before sealing the accessway to the void.
Doomcock claims that by using the void, Star Wars’ timeline can be reset.
Of course, the “it was all a dream” device has been used many times by different writers in different shows and media. The reset device also opens up a huge can of worms.
Some fans of the sequels are, understandably, upset and ask: Why not delete The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones as well, two less-than-popular movies in the Star Wars saga? And why would Disney have invested billions promoting three movies only to pull the rug out from under them?
And then there is reality: While some detractors of the sequel trilogy would love to see a proper sequel made with a reunion of the Original Trilogy characters (Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford), the passage of time has erased that possibility. Carrie Fisher’s death in December 2016 and the likelihood that Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill have psychologically moved on and would not be interested in engaging in another sequel mean that that door is closed.
While speculation can be fun, Doomcock’s rumor has to be taken with a large dose of salt.
May 23, 2020 – Often rated as among the best of the nine main movies in the Star Wars saga, The Empire Strikes Back – released on 21 May 1980 – just celebrated its 40th anniversary. Audiences first saw a theatrical trailer for Empire in the fall of 1979:
Over 40 years later, the trailer may seem somewhat hammy by today’s standards, but it fairly represents tastes and standards of another era. Surprisingly, the voice-over narration is provided by Harrison Ford, and the trailer features footage that was cut from the final film. For example, scenes of C-3PO tearing off a warning sticker from a door in the Rebel base on Hoth and of Luke and Leia about to kiss never made it to the final cut.
Now assume Empire were released, for the first time, in 2020. What would a modern trailer look like? Thanks to YouTuber “AD_edits”, we’re about to find out:
The reimagined trailer gives nothing away and, through creative editing, offers more drama. However, similar to the Star Wars sequel trilogy trailers, there is some misdirection. Audiences could be forgiven if they thought the Battle of Hoth would be the final, climactic showdown.
If the goal of a movie trailer is to lure in audiences, then the original (albeit dated) trailer served its purpose well. If the goal of The Empire Strikes Back was to entertain audiences and rake in lots of money, then Empire has exceeded all expectations. Forty years later, the movie still ranks No. 1 in many fans’ hearts.
May 12, 2020 – In honor of the 40th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back (1980), BBC Radio 4 will be replaying a 57-minute episode of TESB on Saturday, 16th May at 20:00 BST/ 15:00 ET / 12noon PT.
JediNews.co.uk was the first to report this news.
You can listen to the broadcast online at bbc.co.uk/programmes in the Archive on 4 section.
The BBC Radio 4 – Archive on 4 landing page promotes the radio drama as:
“40 years ago George Lucas risked all on the creation of the first Star Wars sequel, The Empire Strikes Back. On this the fate of the Star Wars universe and his dreams of an independent filmmaking empire rested. Having your first screen writer die on you whilst the ink had barely dried on the first draft was an inauspicious start. Then came ice and fire. The first weeks of filming in Norway (a.k.a. Hoth) were a white out and back in England, Elstree studios endured conflagration. The film that finally emerged in May 1980 has gone on to be a classy classic.
“Mark Burman returns to a snowbound Finse, Norway to hear from some of the veteran crew, draws on rare archive of director Irvin Kershner, George Lucas, Mark Hamill and Yoda creator Stuart Freeborn and hears from fx geniuses at Industrial Light & Magic on bringing Imperial Walkers, Taun Tauns and a malfunctioning Millennium Falcon through an asteroid field and onto the screen. Listen to this you must.
November 22, 2019 – Several days ago, Lucasfilm released 11 character posters to promote the Dec. 20th premiere of The Rise of Skywalker. But are they generating the buzz and excitement Disney seeks in advance of the film?
While the photography is excellent, the design and layout are overly simplistic and lazy. For starters, both the border and the fonts are literally colorless – unless you count “white” as a color. Add to that a generic star field behind each character, and the only message a newcomer might walk away with is: “Yeah, this looks like it’s some sort of a sci-fi flick”.
Next, none of the posters even attempt to hint at the grandeur and sweep of the film(s). At best, they highlight each character in various poses you might expect, but without telling any story or theme. In short, they are a bit sterile.
Ironically, while each individual poster suffers from a paucity of design elements and story-telling, the eleven posters taken together are excessive. How many theater lobbies or display boards have the space to exhibit all eleven posters? And beyond an occasional hardcore fan or film collector, how many consumers will bother acquiring the lot?
A better approach might have been to shrink each graphic to the size of trading cards or handheld photo cards.
But the most egregious error is one of omission: Where are the individual posters featuring Luke and Leia? We already know that Leia appears in The Rise of Skywalker, albeit posthumously thanks to left-over footage of Carrie Fisher from The Force Awakens (2016). And Luke is all but certain to appear, whether as a Force Spirit or – surprise! he didn’t actually die? – in his old corporeal form.
Even the Emperor deserves his own poster. His cackling laughter in the teasers and trailers give him away.
Disney’s excessive secrecy and embargoes of information and images risk killing the very hype they need to promote the movie.
Thankfully, not all is lost. Lucasfilm has released a more traditional poster worthy of a final Skywalker saga. Here is the international version minus any text in local languages:
As a bonus, if you zoom in toward the bottom left corner of the poster, you can spot a porg. Hope springs eternal for the movie after all.
November 12, 2019 – For cinephiles and hardcore Star Wars fans, the search for the original, unaltered theatrical releases of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, are their holy grail.
But George Lucas has put up a huge roadblock. In an interview with American Cinematographer magazine (Feb. 1997), he said:
There will only be one. And it won’t be what I would call the ‘rough cut’, it’ll be the ‘final cut.’ The other one will be some sort of interesting artifact that people will look at and say, ‘There was an earlier draft of this.’… What ends up being important in my mind is what the DVD version is going to look like, because that’s what everybody is going to remember. The other versions will disappear. Even the 35 million tapes of Star Wars out there won’t last more than 30 or 40 years. A hundred years from now, the only version of the movie that anyone will remember will be the DVD version [of the Special Edition].”
Despite George Lucas’s attempt to bury the original theatrical release in some hidden, mythical vault, some passionate fans have been working hard to re-create, clean up and release versions of the original releases.
Harmy’s Despecialized Edition
Work on a series of fan restorations of the Original Trilogy, called “Harmy’s Despecialized Edition”, began in 2010. The restorations were intended to reproduce the appearance of the three films as originally shown in cinemas. The edits were created by a team of Star Wars fans led by Petr “Harmy” Harmáček, an English teacher from the Czech Republic. The first version was released in 2011, with updated versions being released in following years.
As a fan edit, Harmy’s Despecialized Edition cannot be legally bought or sold. However, versions can be found on various file-sharing sites, such as BitTorrent. You can also view them at https://archive.org/details/starwarsivdespecialized.
Project 4K77
Another fan-led restoration team has created Project 4K77 (for the original 1977 release) and 4K83 (for 1983’s Return of the Jedi), and is now working on 4K80 (for 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back). You can follow their progress and read their FAQ’s at thestarwarstrilogy.com
Controversy Over the 2006 Bonus DVD (George’s Original, Unaltered Trilogy)
So why all the hard work by Project 4K77 and by Team Harmy, with no legal way to make a profit? Some consider their work a labor of love as well as a response to Lucasfilm’s refusal to release what fans have been begging for, for decades.
But didn’t Lucasfilm release the original theatrical version of the Original Trilogy in its 2006 bonus DVD 3-pack set? Well, yes, sort of. But once fans saw how grainy and poor the release was, more than a few upset fans questioned Lucasfilm’s motives: Why did the company lazily copy the 1993 Laserdisc version onto the 2006 DVD format without using anamorphic enhancements or other 2006-era technology? There are ample 35mm source materials available to do a proper high-def transfer, some argued. (You can read all the gory details here at SaveStarWars.com)
But the more you dig, the more you realize that over the decades, no one version will appeal to ALL Star Wars connoisseurs. Some will be perfectly content with George Lucas’s Specialized Edition (1997). Others will cherish the first VHS releases (early to mid-1980’s), or the 1993 Laserdisc, or the 2011 Blu-ray version (impressively sharp details, but oh, it is overly saturated in magenta!) and many more.
But Is There Really A Difference? Why Does It Matter?
The YouTube video below shows a side-by-side comparison of four versions of the opening scene of Star Wars. Compare the 2006 Bonus DVD GOUT (George’s Original Unaltered Trilogy) versus the 2011 Blu-ray versus a Silver Screen edition (version 1.6) versus the 4K77 project:
The four versions have their strengths and weaknesses. None is perfect.
A good analysis is provided by Michael French on his YouTube channel, RetroBlasting. His video is enlightening and well worth the 25-minute view time – particularly where he clears up confusion over 4K resolution versus HD-quality film. He also discusses old lens technology and film stock, among other variables, which affect film quality. (Sample: “Anything that’s shot on 35mm film, going all the way back to the Silent Era … has an inherent equivalent of 4K resolution in it.”)
November 2, 2019 – Ever since the 4-foot long Jabba’s Sail Barge from HasLab arrived on collectors’ doorsteps in March, 2019, a few fans have dared others: Who is going to be the first to sacrifice their Sail Barge to recreate the explosion scene from Return of the Jedi (1983)?
“The Star Wars Show” contrasts the explosion of Jabba’s Sail Barge seen in “Return of the Jedi” (left) with a set explosion of HasLab’s Sail Barge (right).
Initially sold at $499.99 each – and now selling for more than double that price on the secondary market – all copies of The Khetanna have survived intact, until now.
Lucasfilm stepped up to the challenge and re-created the explosive scene in the same building where the original model was blown up for ROTJ 36 years ago. You can watch the 4-minute long video below courtesy of The Star Wars Show:
While some fans professed sadness at seeing one of the limited edition Khetannas destroyed (see video below), they can take solace in the fact that each copy is now even more valuable. Only 8,810 models were officially ordered during the 2018 crowdfunding campaign.
October 29, 2019 – Disney’s revolving door has just spun again as Game of Thrones creators, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, have just exited the Disney/Lucasfilm building and are abandoning plans to write and produce the next trilogy of Star Wars movies.
Commenting on David Benioff and D.B. Weiss’s exit (pictured above), Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy said Disney hopes “to include them in the journey forward when they are able to step away from their busy schedule to focus on Star Wars.”
Curiously, it was just five months ago – or May 14, 2019, to be exact – when Disney CEO Bob Iger reiterated that Benioff and Weiss would be entrusted with producing the next three Star Wars films. Speaking at Disney’s annual Upfront media event in May, Bob Iger said: “We did a deal with David Benioff and D.B Weiss, who are famous for Game of Thrones, and the next movie that we release will be theirs.” The Disney-Benioff-Weiss partnership was first announced in Feb. 2018.
Disney had previously announced that the planned movie release dates were Dec. 2022, Dec. 2024 and Dec. 2026. But now that timetable is up in the air.
Benioff and Weiss released a joint written statement: “There are only so many hours in the day, and we felt we could not do justice to both Star Wars and our Netflix projects. So we are regretfully stepping away.” However, left unsaid is why the two elected to sign a deal with Netflix in August, 2019 – many months after their earlier announced partnership with Disney/Lucasfilm to produce the next Star Wars sequel. The Nextflix contract is reportedly worth $200 million.
Disney’s Revolving Door
Benioff and Weiss are not the first high-publicity producers to leave a Star Wars project.
Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were reportedly fired in the midst of production of Solo: A Star Wars Story and were replaced by director Ron Howard. Thereafter, director Colin Trevorrow was replaced by J.J. Abrams for The Rise of Skywalker.
Rumors Swirling
Just a few weeks ago, Disney had confirmed that Marvel’s chief creative officer, Kevin Feige, is developing a Star Wars movie for Lucasfilm. Rumors are swirling that Feige will be “cleaning house” and bringing in like-minded people to re-orient the Star Wars franchise. He may also be tasked with taking over the next Star Wars trilogy, allegedly set in the far distant post-Skywalker future.
Another rumor is that Bob Iger had vetoed Benioff and Weiss’s proposed story treatment for the next three Star Wars movies, thus their departure.
And yet another rumor is that Rian Johnson, who directed The Last Jedi, may be shown the exit door after The Rise of Skywalker has completed its theater run. For now, Johnson has said he is still committed to future Star Wars projects, including Disney’s past announcement that he would be helming a future trilogy.
All of the above tidbits are just speculation, in the absence of any confirmations from Disney. All eyes are on the revolving door to see who leaves the building next.
FUTURE of STAR WARS 